A mobile device is a small portable computing device typically comprising a display screen having a touch input, a keypad, and/or a miniature keyboard. Mobile devices include but are not limited to mobile phones and smartphones, email and/or Internet devices, portable GPS receivers, personal media players, handheld game players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), e-book readers, tablet devices, netbooks, notebooks, laptops, and other portable computers. Mobile phones, smartphones, e-book readers, and tablet-type portable devices have become prolific and are particularly popular among users who want to meld computing and communications technologies into everyday environments. In addition to computing and/or telephony, certain mobile devices (such as smartphones) also support a wide variety of services such as text messaging, email, Internet access, short-range wireless communications (via infrared, short-range radio, etc.), business and personal computing applications, gaming, photography, navigation, location-specific information and services, and data storage and retrieval, among other features and options.
However, typical mobile devices have several noticeable shortcomings. Many mobile devices may be difficult to use in bright sunlit environments because the display screens are relatively dim due in part to the fact that only a very small fraction of the light emitted by the display reaches the eye of the operator of the mobile device (i.e., the human operator's eye) coupled with the large amount of battery power used for the brightness of even relatively dim displays. Additionally, because mobile devices are used in public environments where third parties may eavesdrop and see sensitive information on the screen of the mobile device, these mobile devices present certain inherent privacy concerns. In addition, current mobile devices provide only limited “augmented reality” applications for integrating mobile device capabilities specific to their location and environment.